There’s a deep essential longing in every human soul for connection to someone else. Much of life is devoted to overcoming aloneness and establishing connectedness. As children, we want to connect to our parents. As teenagers, having friends is one of the most important parts of life.

Sexuality is a gift from God designed to connect the bodies and souls of men and women united in marriage. The Bible says, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” You see, God placed within us a strong desire for sexual union. It’s his way of populating our world, but it’s far more than that. It’s to be an expression of the connection of the souls of two different people – two becoming one – the ultimate connectedness.

It’s a tragic mistake to separate the physical from the spiritual with casual sex. Sexual union is all about fulfilling our created need to connect our soul to another person.

Let me explain it this way. For some people, their favorite part of a meal is the whipped cream on the dessert. It looks good, tastes good and is good, but a diet of only whipped cream would be an inadequate way to meet basic human nutritional needs. It’s the same with sex. It looks good, feels good and is good, but is ultimately unsatisfying if it’s not meeting the greater human need for soul connection. Make sure you’re not settling for second best.